The history of Sunrise can be traced back to at least 17 January 1991 when 11AM news presenter Darren McDonald began presenting an early morning Seven News – Sunrise Edition bulletin prior to hostilities breaking out during the Gulf War.

In 1996, Seven introduced a one hour weekday bulletin called Sunrise News, later renamed Sunrise. Seven recruited Chris Bath from NBN Television to present the bulletin alongside Peter Ford.[1] Ford moved to other presenting roles in 1996, and was replaced by finance editor David Koch. In 1997, Chris Bath was transferred to Seven's 10.30pm News and was replaced by Melissa Doyle. In 1998 Sunrise was presented by Melissa Doyle and Nick McArdle Seven launched a Sunday bulletin hosted by Stan Grant, entitled Sunday Sunrise, in 1997.[2] Weekday Sunrise was cancelled in 1999, replaced by children's program The Big Breakfast.[3] Seven maintained half-hourly news updates during The Big Breakfast, and their Sunday bulletin was not affected by the axing.

During the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Andrew Daddo and Johanna Griggs presented Olympic Sunrise from a leased apartment near Lavender Bay in Sydney which provided the Harbour Bridge and Opera House as waterside backdrops.

In March 2002, Seven revamped their breakfast television schedule with Seven Early News at 6:00 a.m., hosted by Chris Reason (and only lasted around one week), and a new version of Sunrise from 6:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., hosted by Reason and Melissa Doyle. Sunrise from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. began in February the same year. David Koch was brought in to present the finance reports. In October of that year, Reason discovered he had another cancerous tumour behind his kidney and had to resign from his position. Four years earlier he had undergone treatment for another growth.

Koch was appointed temporary presenter, a position later made permanent. Sunrise was yet again revamped soon after Koch's appointment, focusing less on hard news and became more family friendly. The show, along with its rival Today on Nine, have become more tabloid focused. This has boosted ratings by moving people away from morning radio and the newspaper to the TV[citation needed].

On 29 January 2007 Sunrise had a complete makeover with changes to the set and on-screen graphics. Due to continued viewer feedback, the Sunrise set changed again on 10 June 2007; specifically, the new set includes more of the city into its shots by the installation of smart glass. This glass, similar to that on the new Boeing 787 allows for the transparency of the glass to be adjusted, ranging from clear, to partially transparent to completely opaque, showing as a solid blue. These changes have proved useful in shielding viewers from the actions of some passers by, notably, cast members of the ABC show The Chaser's War on Everything. The set was also modified so The Morning Show's set could fit into the Martin Place current affairs studio. In October 2009, it was announced that at the start of 2010, Sunrise will receive a brand new set, format, graphics and logo on 25 January 2010.

In April 2010, Sunrise added a feature show that shows a selection of highlights from the previous day’s (or in the case of Monday, Friday's) Sunrise; the show is known as Sunrise Extra. Sunrise Extra airs at 5am each weekday morning prior to Seven Early News.

In 2011, there was much speculation that Melissa Doyle would be leaving the show to present Today Tonight and that David Koch may be moved to a prime-time position. However, Doyle continued with the show for her tenth consecutive year in 2012, as did Koch.[4]

In February 2012 Sunrise announced that Koch would be co-hosting live from Antarctica. Sunrise is claiming the live broadcast is an Aussie TV first, and while there was a single cross from David Base during 1988′s landmark Australia Live celebrations, it’s fair to say nothing of this magnitude has been attempted before. This special edition did not affect the show's ratings.

On 29 February 2012, Sunrise celebrated its 10th anniversary with Mel & Kochie. Doyle is the only original presenter remaining from the March 2002 launch; at the time, Chris Reason was her co-host (he took leave in late 2002 to fight cancer, prompting the initial then-temporary appointment of Koch) and David Koch was the finance analyst. Koch started presenting Sunrise on a permanent basis from 4 October 2002.

In May 2013, Sunrise started broadcasting once a week from the Seven Networks Melbourne Studios HSV7, to try and capture a growing Melbourne audience. Today has been winning the Melbourne market since 2008. The show is broadcast from the stations AFL Game Day set.

On 20 June 2013 during the program, Melissa Doyle announced that she was leaving Sunrise after 14 years to front a new prime time Network News initiative. She stated, "It’s with that experience and support from the team that I am able to take this next step. I’m honoured that the Network has given me this incredible new opportunity and I am unbelievably excited about the new challenges ahead". It was later announced that Samantha Armytage would be replacing Melissa as co-host alongside David Koch.[5]

17 July 2010 (as Weekend Sunrise) – A special edition hosted by Larry Emdur and Rebecca Maddern covering from 7.00am to 1.30pm, Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard's trip to Government House to talk with Governor General Quentin Bryce and her press conference at Government House about an election to be held on 21 August and Tony Abbott's press conference in Brisbane. Sarah Cumming presented the news, Simon Reeve presented the sport and James Tobin presented the weather.

The weeks of 10–14 January and 17–21 January – Sunrise was extended to start at 5am and going on past 9am on these mornings to cover the ongoing 2010–2011 Queensland floods and 2011 Victorian floods with Seven News picking up the rest of the coverage. As a result, the tennis coverage was moved to 7Two (week of 10–14 Jan) and Sunrise extended to finish at 10am (week of 17–21 January).

26 January 2012 – Sunrise aired live from a mini-barge celebrating Australia Day on Sydney Harbour. A particular amount of viewers were given the opportunity to join the Sunrise Team after entering an online-competition.[6]

26 January 2012 – Sunrise aired live from a mini-barge celebrating Australia Day on Sydney Harbour. A particular amount of viewers were given the opportunity to join the Sunrise Team after entering an online-competition.[6]

A number of musical guests have appeared on Sunrise and performed live action the show. Like the rest of the studio, their stage area gives people on the street a chance to view the performances. Occasionally, musical guests perform "on the plaza" on a temporary stage erected in Martin Place. Musical performances normally take place at 7:50am and 8:50am, with most guests playing two songs.

In 2005 the Seven Network replaced its struggling Sunday morning program Sunday Sunrise with a program called Weekend Sunrise which originally was an hour long (8am – 9am) program with an identical format to Sunrise. Hosted by Chris Reason (then the presenter of Sunday Sunrise) and Lisa Wilkinson, the program was successful and various critiques at the time called for the program to be lengthened to two hours (7am – 9am) and be extended to Saturday mornings as well as Sunday.[citation needed]

In 2006, Weekend Sunrise was extended from an hour to a two hour show, running every Sunday from 8am till 10am. When Sportsworld returned for the football season Weekend Sunrise settled into a 90 minute format, 8am – 9.30am. After Sportsworld's series concluded, the show returned to a two hour format.

Andrew O'Keefe initially temporarily replaced host Chris Reason in 2006, but after improved ratings he was given the hosting position permanently. In 2007, Wilkinson moved to the Nine Network to host Today, and was replaced by Samantha Armytage. In 2008, Weekend Sunrise moved their start time 30 minutes earlier to 7.30am, to match the new start time of Nine's Sunday program. The program continued to run through to 10am, meaning the program had a two-and-a-half hour running time.

In 2009, the program's start time was moved even earlier. Originally, it was announced that Today on Sunday (now Weekend Today), the replacement the long-running Nine's Sunday, would run from 7.30 to 9am. But this was changed on 28 January 2009 to 7 to 9am. As result, Seven announced that Weekend Sunrise would also commence at 7am and run through to 10am, meaning the program would go for 3 hours, the same as the weekday version of Sunrise.[7]

On 13 February 2010, Seven announced that Weekend Sunrise would extend to Saturdays to compete against Weekend Today. The Saturday edition airs in the same time slot as Weekend Today, i.e. 7am – 9am. Saturday Disney, which previously occupied the timeslot, immediately follows Weekend Sunrise. The original Saturday team consisted of Samantha Armytage co-hosting with Larry Emdur with Sarah Cumming, Simon Reeve and James Tobin presenting news, sport and weather respectively.

In June 2013, Melissa Doyle announced that she would be leaving Sunrise for a national network role with Samantha Armytage replacing her. Monique Wright initially replaced Armytage on Weekend Sunrise, but it was not until February 2014 in which Wright was made a permanent co-host on the show.[8]

Like most other breakfast television shows, Sunrise blends a mixture of news every thirty minutes, interviews and light-hearted feature pieces into three hours each morning. Often they will go out and present the show from other locations, such as Hawaii, Las Vegas, Athens, Disneyland, Beijing and Melbourne for the Commonwealth Games, Beaconsfield in Tasmania and Dreamworld on the Gold Coast. A major feature of the show is that the viewer can send in their responses to stories via email, SMS, phone, Facebook and Twitter. Viewers can also bring up issues they want reviewed or investigated and it is recorded on the ROSwall (Responses of Sunrisers).

Local news updates, following the national news updates at 6am, 7am, and 8am were launched on 28 May 2007, offering viewers in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart, and Perth news specific to their city. Prior to this, local weather and capital city traffic updates had already been inserted into the program. These were removed in June 2008, following the commencement of Seven Early News, due to logistical reasons.

Traffic reports are shown at regular intervals during the show, and are presented in some cities from a local helicopter. Traffic reports only air into the metropolitan regions of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. They are produced and presented by traffic reporters from the Australian Traffic Network.

Chris Reason was the original co-host with Melissa Doyle, while Monique Wright, David Brown and Fifi Box were previous weather presenters. Brown resigned from his role in July 2008, with no replacement until 2009, during which various presenters filled in, being Fifi Box.[9] On 24 January 2010 it was announced the original presenter Grant Denyer would return to the weather and Fifi Box would move to entertainment.[10] In March 2013, Grant Denyer resigned as weather presenter for the second time to spend more time with his family.[11]

In June 2013, Doyle announced that she will be moving to a network prime-time role with the Seven Network and will leave Sunrise after 14 years. Samantha Armytage will be her immediate replacement. It comes not long after Denyer resigned as weather presenter, and his replacement was former Sydney Correspondent Edwina Bartholomew. Doyle's final regular appearance as host on Sunrise aired on 9 August 2013.

In 2003 an interview aired live with Sue Butler from the Macquarie Dictionary on the topic of swearing and what was acceptable.

Sue Butler: Today's taboos are all about labels that you use for people. So that the sentence, "you are a" is practically a no no. You cannot use...

David Koch: Even if you use boofhead.

Sue Butler: Even if you use boofhead because you're putting it in the same context as things which are clearly rude. You know: "You are a fuckwit." Well, obviously we know that's bad.

Doyle and Koch immediately ended the interview and apologised afterwards. This did not prevent angry viewers writing and emailing in complaints over the interview.[12]

In 2006, a number of people including Sunrise presenters David Koch and Melissa Doyle, news presenter Natalie Barr, executive producer Adam Boland and Melbourne news presenter Jennifer Keyte and former Today Tonight host Naomi Robson faced court convictions over a story run in 2004 relating to a 14-year old boy who "divorced" his mother. Under the Victorian Children and Young Persons Act, it is prohibited to publish the identity of a child involved in Children's Court proceedings. While the Sunrise cast and crew were cleared of any wrongdoing, the Seven Network itself was ultimately held responsible.[13]

Upon the rescue of trapped miners Brant Webb and Todd Russell in the aftermath of the Beaconsfield mine collapse, David Koch was invited into an ambulance. This led to rival Channel Nine and Today labelling him an "ambulance chaser".[14]

In 2004, David Koch read the joke of the day, which received public outcry. The Sunrise website quoting:

Kochie's joke of the day is being rested today after a controversial one yesterday. He got in a little strife from his big bosses. We're currently deciding whether to keep Kochie's joke. What do you think?

The joke went along the lines of:

John Howard went skiing and his bodyguard saw 'John Howard is a Dork' peed into the snow...Johnny went off and told his guard to get a sample of it and find out who did it at all costs...The guard returned a day later and said we have good and bad news...Johnny asked what the good news was, and the guard retorted that it was Kim Beazley's urine...Johnny says right, he's stuffed now – throw the book at him...What's the bad news? The guard grins and says it was in Janette's handwriting.

To this day, Howard still hasn't forgiven Koch over the joke and still refuses to appear on Sunrise[15]

In April 2007, reports surfaced that the show was lobbying Vietnamese authorities to hold an ANZAC Day dawn service early so it could be broadcast live on television in Australia.[16] Koch denied on-air that any such lobbying had occurred. His claim was proven false upon the release of email communications from the office of then opposition leader Kevin Rudd. After considerable political fallout over the alleged request, opposition leader Kevin Rudd and Liberal minister Joe Hockey decided to end their regular weekly appearances on the program.[17]

On the 18 March 2008 episode Koch and Doyle were ambushed by a group of protesters chanting and carrying placards that claimed "Channel 7 doesn't pay", a reference to controversy surrounding the reported non-payment of winnings to National Bingo Night audience members and home viewers.[18] The group, posing as fans of guest Keith Urban, were driven away by security.[19] Koch later blamed the incident on the Nine Network's A Current Affair, a theory that was lent credence when the same protesters appeared on that night's episode of the program.[20] Both Koch and co-host Melissa Doyle promised to look into their allegations[18] but later simply read a statement from the network.

In April 2010, a scheduled concert for Canadian teen singer Justin Bieber, at Circular Quay, Sydney was cancelled at 5:00 am by order of police after the crowd of more than 5,000 people (mainly teenage girls) had begun a crowd crush and were ignoring the orders of the crowd controllers. Eight people were taken to hospital for their injuries and others suffered from hyperventilation.[21][22] The outdoor concert was then moved to the Sunrise studios at Martin Place. Sunrise had been promoting the concert for two weeks beforehand, creating a significant amount of excitement and anticipation. It was also alleged that Bieber swore at a floor manager but was re-assured by Bieber's regular sound technician that "he tells us that all the time". Bieber, however, has denied this,[23] publicly denouncing the claims as "lies and rumors" spread by "adults".[24] The concert for singer Usher, scheduled for 21 May, more than three weeks after the Bieber incident, required fans to register for a free ticket online in order to attend the concert, however the tickets quickly ran out as a result of scalpers. When more tickets were promised later in the week, the website crashed as soon as the ticket distribution began, causing many fans to miss out. When Bieber returned to perform on the show on 18 July 2012, a number of measures were put in place to avoid the issues that arose in these previous instances.

During 2008's World Youth Day in Sydney, Sunrise was extended on Thursday, 17 July and Monday, 21 July to cover the Pope's morning Masses and the departure of the Pope respectively. Both of those editions ended at 9:30am with The Morning Show picking up the rest of the coverage.

Sunrise was extended well past 9am on the morning of 13 October 2010 to cover the 2010 Copiapó mining accident. As a result, The Morning Show did not air.

On 27 February 2012, Sunrise was extended to 12pm to cover the Labor leadership ballot. The Morning Show did not air. On 30 October 2012 Sunrise extended to 1pm to cover Hurricane Sandy. On 22 January 2013 Sunrise commenced at 3am and concluded at 10am to cover the Inauguration of Barack Obama normal early morning programming and Dr Oz did not air. On 29 January Sunrise extended to 11am to cover flooding in southern Queensland and Northern New South Wales as a result The Morning Show did not air.

Following the birth of the Royal Baby - Prince George of Cambridge, Melissa Doyle fronted an extended edition of the program for two days, live from outside Buckingham Palace, with contribution from Martin Frizell, Mike Amor and Robert Jobson, who had all also been covering the lead-up to the birth of the baby for Sunrise and 7 News. David Koch and Samantha Armytage also appeared in a reduced role back in the studio. The extended version began at 5am, replacing Sunrise Extra and the Early News, with Doyle also contributing reports to The Morning Show which began at its regular time of 9am.

Sunrise and its Nine Network rival Today remain close in the ratings, with Network Ten's Wake Up behind both of them in the ratings race.[25] However, Sunrise remains on top daily, with the gap between the two often being more than 50,000+ viewers.

On Good Friday, 2009, Sunrise suffered its first one-day ratings defeat nationally against Today since 2004. In 2011, Sunrise suffered its first weekly ratings defeat against Today since the same year.

Because Australia has more than one time zone, Sunrise is not broadcast live to all of Australia, it is instead broadcast delayed. New South Wales (including ACT), Victoria, Tasmania have Sunrise broadcast live all year round, Queensland has Sunrise broadcast live in wintertime, but during Daylight Saving Time in Sydney has the program delayed by one hour. The Northern Territory has Sunrise delayed 30 minutes during winter and 90 minutes during Daylight Savings in Sydney. South Australia has it delayed by 30 minutes all year around and Western Australia has it delayed by two hours in wintertime and by three hours during Daylight Savings in Sydney.

Occasionally, broadcasts of Sunrise are altered during special circumstances. On the morning of 20 March 2006, when Sunrise was normally on a one hour delay in Queensland, the program was broadcast live in order to provide immediate and up-to-date information on Tropical Cyclone Larry to local residents. The show continued to be broadcast until 10am Sydney time only in to Queensland to continue these updates and prevent scheduling problems.